Mother Runner | Life Balancer | Side of Chocolate

Mental Health and Being Active #BellLetsTalk

I’m a firm believer that being active; exercising, working out, physical activity – whatever you want to call it…. can help keep you focused, deal with stress and keep you sane. I’m not saying that it’s the end all be all for everyone but being active for me keeps me grounded, helps me deal with life stresses, lets me escape for a little while and keeps me sane.

I run. I play soccer. I do DVD workouts. I ski. I snowshoe. I walk. I try to bike but not a strong skill for me. I swim. I play with my daughters outside.

I enjoy team sports and individual challenges.

I value the benefits of being active. I value how it makes me feel physically and mentally.

It’s part of who I am and hopefully will always be.

I’ve never been depressed, sad at the appropriate times but not depressed. I’ve never been diagnosed with a mental health disorder though I have experience times of great stress and anxiety. I do however, have a family member who does suffer from depression and at times that has been hard to understand.

But you support. You be there for them. You talk about it. You engage them in life.

I am writing this post as awareness and to support the #BellLetsTalk day that is happening in Canada. You don’t have to be a subscriber of Bell to add the hashtag of #BellLetsTalk. You simple just have to type it in any message you tweet today.

They have already had 20,134,357 tweets, text, calls and shares…keep it up! Let’s help raise awareness of mental health issues and help raise money for some much-needed initiatives.

Last night I managed to run 7k – something I haven’t been able to do in a long time (for many reasons). I felt like I accomplished a little goal of increasing my miles, pushed my body and improved my state of mind. Physical activity is important to me that’s why I make it a priority in my life over other things.

Help end the stigma around mental health and hashtag your tweets peeps! (Or call, text, share).

working out and and taking care of my body is so important in helping me deal with stress. Although many cases of mental health require more specific care I have seen exercise and meditation do wonders for people who have struggle with these disorders.

Being active (running, especially) is one of the best ways for me to manage my anxiety, it defintiely makes a HUGE difference!
Thanks for shaing about #BellLetsTalk I’m sure all my Twitter followers are SUPER annoyed by me 🙂

It’s hard function on zero to no sleep….it can make stressful moments even worse. Good sleep, exercise and healthy eating (and a little chocolate) what I need in my life. If I lose focus on one of those it sure can have a negative affect on me (and those around me).

Love this! Exercise definitely helps me relieve stress. I’ve never been diagnosed with depression, but I was given medication once when I was sick. One of the side effects (that doesn’t usually affect people) is depression. I had no idea what was going on with me but I knew something was wrong. I didn’t want to be around people, nothing made me happy and I didn’t care, etc. Luckily I told my boyfriend about it, and he told his mom (who was a nurse) and she figured it out right away. They took me off of the medication and I was back to normal in no time. It was scary, but now I feel like I can relate a TINY bit to a couple of friends who have struggled with depression.

Thanks, in the end it was great! Yes, let’s hope that people continue to talk for the rest of the year. Not that I tweet much (other then for this), I might start hash -tagging more things each month to see if people are still using it and keeping it alive!

You are inspiring me. Before I had my twins, now eight months (or actually before I got to a certain point in my pregnancy) I went running regularly about three times a week. It made me feel a lot better and kept me sane. I haven’t quite managed to get that back into my schedule post-babies. How do you organize your time with it? I would like to at least start running on the weekends, when my husband and I could take turns.

It’s hard to get into any schedule with little ones, especially with two! I tried with little things; walking with baby H in the stroller and then moved onto running. I would get dressed in my running gear in the morning, nurse Hilary and then when it was time for her nap (and my husband was home) I would go out for a run. Usually the run was between 15-20 minutes but it was a start, got me out on my own and running again.
A girlfriend of mine starting running at night when her twins and 3 yr old would go to bed (8ish) and she’d run for 30-40 minutes – again, husband was home. She’s been doing that for 5-6 months now and getting out every other night even in bad weather.
I also plan out what days I can fit it in and really try hard at sticking to it. It’s hard sometimes but worth it in the end. Good luck!